‘Shallow, Deep, Shallow Again’ is a contemplation of time - of both ancient and speculative geologies which are eroded and restructured through tidal cycles. This work is composed of two forms of geology; bronze casts of 300 million year old river-stone found on Yuin Country on the Far South Coast of NSW, and accelerated plastiglomerates made of tidal plastics collected from the Western Isles of Scotland.

 

The river-stone symbolises a moment in time when plant life began to flourish on Earth. The rich sedimentary deposits made by early flora was captured as vibrant red and pink rock solidifying under heat and pressure. As Gondwana gradually separated into subcontinents, such as Australia and South America, the river system, where early plant life thrived, was entombed. The river-stone re-emerged millions of years later bursting from the Pacific Ocean to form the coasting of Southern NSW. Stabilised for the last 12 thousand years, accelerated climate change has aggressively eroded the ancient stone, drawing it back into the sea.

 

The plastiglomerate, a collection of sediments, natural debris and microplasitc bound by heat , symbolises the epoch of history we currently occupy. This new form of geology, created by the perfect mixture of human interaction and tidal erosion, obligates us to contemplate our relationship to ‘nature’. In the broader context of entropy, the continual state of the wearing down of things, this contemporary rock allows us to zoom out, to reshuffle our perspective and contemplate a reality that removes us from the centre of the narrative. A story that no long prioritises human centricity but considers all life equal amongst a larger scale of time. 

 

What unites these seemingly dissimilar ecosystems is water. Water acts as a magnet rather than a boundary. In collaboration with the moon, water pushes worlds together and pulls them apart again. What once was buried resurfaces, what once was shallow is now deep.